I slipped out of work this morning to get a quick oil change. 45 minutes later, they told me there was a "bulge" on one of my tires and it needed to be changed as soon as possible. "Blow-out at anytime" was a troubling phrase I remember hearing.The oil change outfit didn't sell tires, so they suggested a nearby outfit that did. That place only had a high-end tire that would do for my van. No thanks. They sent me to one of their nearby locations with a mid-grade tire in stock. Mid-grade would do for me.
Rather watch Divorce Court in the lobby, I went to a nearby dive for lunch. I enjoyed a great cheeseburger/fries. The tire store called as I was finishing up my lunch - I assumed to tell me that my car was ready. No. They recommended replacing all four tires. Really? I eventually determined to go ahead and have them replace all the tires.
The last time I replaced tires was in 2000. Shortly after getting married, Ben was driving our car and it got a flat tire. When he took the car in to get the tire fixed, the store said we needed all new tires. I remember Ben calling to tell me the bad news. The money needed for the tires was about the same amount of cash we had just received as wedding gifts - the only money we had. I didn't think tires made for a very good wedding gift, but what choice did we have? I tried to be positive and convince myself that it was just a good thing we even had money to get the new tires.
I didn't like spending a boatload of money on tires today, but I'm glad the cost of today's new tires didn't represent all the cash to my name. I'm also glad that for seven years (while living in New York) I didn't own a car and didn't have to buy any new tires.
Four hours after "slipping out" for an oil change, I returned to work.
6 comments:
Oh, the joys of having a car... thank you for reminding me that having to rent a car whenever we need to get out of the city, is much better than daily maintenance of all four.
Glad you are safe.
That was an expensive lunch break lol. I couldn't agree more though. I HATE spending $$ on tires. At least you shouldn't have to buy more for a while (hopefully!)
Ug! I feel your pain. The SAME thing just happened to me. I had to replace just one back rear tire due to some sort of tire-wall issue and the dealership only had the top of the line tires for a bazillion dollars. So we ended up taking it elsewhere (not Costco-- I know, shocking) and of course you can't just replace ONE tire, and since the front tires weren't new anymore either, we decided to do all four at once so that they all had even tread. But hi, there's a hefty chunk of change, regardless. No fun. At least you got a good cheeseburger out of the deal. Never a total loss when there's good food.
So maybe you should make new tires an anniversary gift to memorialize you first anniversary. I know, very romantic.
It's so hard to tell if what they say is what we really need, or if they are just trying to take advantage of us. I just say no to everything and have Matt figure it out. They tend to be a little less pushy when it's Matt.
You probably got your money's worth out of the old tires though. It's been a while!
i love those memories of early marriage when money was harder to come by. there's some sort of romance to it. . .
but of course not to say i'm not glad that little unexpected bills like tires don't usually throw off the financial balance.
and i'm also glad to change tires-- i wouldn't go back to the car rental days of new york for anything. . .
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